Russia may stop implementing a key defence treaty because of concerns over US plans for a missile shield in Europe, President Vladimir Putin said. Mr Putin made the threat during his annual address to parliament - which he said would be his last as president. He also hit out at an influx of foreign money which he said was being used to meddle in Russia's internal affairs. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed Russian concerns over the missile shield as "ludicrous". BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Mr Putin's speech marks a significant raising of diplomatic stakes. The Russian president suggested that his country should freeze its compliance with the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty - which limits military deployments across the continent - until all Nato countries had ratified it. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

The European Union is open to co-operation with the up-and-coming Indian and Chinese space industries on its Mars operations but it will maintain control over the mission, the European Space Agency said on Thursday."We're always open to co-operation," Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's director general, told reporters in answer to a question about working with India and China. "The mission to Mars is one which is open to co-operation but (in) which we want to control our own input and our own timeframe," he said. The ESA has a Mars Express spacecraft orbiting the red planet, wants to send a vehicle to collect samples of Martian rock and ultimately aims to send a human there. Dordain was speaking after the agency, together with the EU executive Commission, launched a space policy aimed at a more coordinated, focused and cost-saving approach. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3083116

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, depicted the situation there as “exceedingly complex and very tough” Thursday and said the U.S. effort might become more difficult before before it gets easier. The four-star general called the war there “the most complex and challenging I have ever seen.” He said there have been some improvements in the two months since President Bush’s troop buildup began, but “there is vastly more work to be done across the board. ... We are just getting started with the new effort.” Petraeus spoke as the Senate debated House-passed legislation to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in October. Asked about the impact on the effort in Iraq if that legislation passed, Petraeus said, “I have tried to stay clear of the political minefields of various legislative proposals.” Bush has said he will veto the bill. ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18329437/

grand jury indicted three current and former Atlanta police officers in the shooting death of an elderly woman during a drug raid, the indictment unsealed Thursday shows.Officers with a no-knock warrant raided 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston's home on Nov. 21 without warning after an informant said he had bought drugs there, according to police. Johnston fired at the plainclothes officers who burst in, and they fired back, killing her. Gregg Junnier, 40, and J.R. Smith, 35, were charged in the indictment with felony murder, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and making false statements. Arthur Tesler, 40, is charged with violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements, false imprisonment under color of legal process. Fulton County prosecutors said earlier this year that they intended to seek murder charges against the three officers. The three also are expected to face federal charges....http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-26-elderly-shooting_N.htm?csp=34

NBC News has learned that the commander of Camp Cropper, the massive U.S. Army detention center in Baghdad, has been charged with aiding the enemy. The Army tells NBC News that military police arrested Lt. Col. William H. Steele several weeks ago and that he is being held at a detention facility in Kuwait. He now faces an Article 32 hearing, the military's equivalent of a grand jury investigation, to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute him. An Army statement listed these charges against Steele: "One specification of a violation of Article 104, aiding the enemy; one specification of a violation of Article 134, retaining classified material; two specifications of violations of Article 133, conduct unbecoming an officer, for relationships involving an interpreter and another Iraqi female; five specifications of a violation of Article 92, failure to obey lawful orders for wrongfully storing classified materials, improperly marking classified materials, failing to ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18311404/

Academics are being assassinated, prisoners are being tortured, women are being murdered by their own families in so-called "honor killings," and civilians continue to be cut down by rampant violence, the United Nations said today in a report painting a grim picture of life in Iraq. The report, which covers from Jan. 1, 2007 through March 31, was most notable for what it did not include: the number of civilian deaths. That's because the Iraqi government refused to release those numbers, the U.N. spokesman, Said Arikat, said as he presented the organization's 10th such summary of the human rights situation in Iraq. However, numbers obtained from various ministries by the Times indicated that already this year, 5,509 civilians had died violently in Baghdad province alone, which includes the capital....http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes965.html